Ss Thomas Plus et Ioannes Piscator

The Familia Sancti Hieronymi or Family of St Jerome is an organisation from Clearwater in Florida on the western side of the Florida peninsula. It is
…a canonical association dedicated to the advancement of the Latin heritage of the Catholic Church, as it is reflected in the Church’s liturgy, in its sacred music, in its devotional life, in its official documents, and in its propagation of the Faith.
To that end they have produced various resources for learning Latin, not just to read and understand but to think in and speak it.  Browsing over their site I came across the Latin text of the Apostolic Letter of John Paul II which made St Thomas More the patron of politicians.
quibus Sanctus Thomas Morus gubernatorum, politicorum virorum ac mulierum proclamatur patronus
I was surprised since it is not conventional to Latinise surnames. In the Graduale Romanum and Antiphonale Monasticum – as well as in the supplement for the Archdiocese of Birmingham printed at the back of my 1954 Breviary – it is the feast "S. Thomae More", "of St Thomas More". He is also "Thomas More" in the latest edition of the Roman Martyrology.

I did wonder if this might be excess enthusiasm on the part of the FSH but the copy of the decree on the Vatican website has the same text. At the bottom is a reference to the Acts of the Apostolic See, where such decrees are formally published. There on page 76 of AAS 93 [2001] [pdf] we find
quibus sanctus Thomas Moras Guberaatorum, politicorum Virorum ac Mulierum proclamatur Patronus
I assume the typos (Moras for Morus etc.) are due to errors in the optical character recognition and not to errors in the original.

Thomas More was beatified with John Fisher and several others by Pope Leo XIII on 29th December 1886.  The decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites was published in Acta Sanctae Sedis (the predecessor of AAS), the Acts of the Holy See, ASS 19 [1886-87] [pdf] on page 347.
DECRETUM Westmonasterien. confirmationis cultus beatorum martyrum Ioannis Cardinalis Fisher, Thomae More et Sociorum in odium fidei ab anno 1535 ad 1583 in Anglia interemptorum.
I cannot construe the opening but the sense is "in confirmation of a decree made at Westminster of the cult of the blessed martyrs John Fisher, Thomas More and Companions slain from hatred of the faith between the years 1535 and 1583 in England". The point is that throughout the decree Thomas More's surname is not Latinised.

More and Fisher were canonised by Pope Pius XI on 9th May 1935. The entry for "More (B.) Thomas" in the index to AAS 27 [1935] [pdf] on page 551 is as follows:
de martyrio et causa martyrii, 86; consistorium secretum, 129; causae relatio, 133; consistorium publicum et causae peroratio, 141 ; decretum de tuto, 159; consistorium semipublicum, 201; in solemni canonizatione, 202; homilia B. P. de eodem, 204.
The first document is a decree by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. He is "Thomas More" throughout with his Christian name in the appropriate Latin declension. The next is a minute of a private consistory  of the College of Cardinals of 1st April 1935 including an allocution by the Pope. On page 30 he says
…rogemus de beatis martyribus Ioanne S. R. E. Card. Fishero Episcopo Boffensi, ac Thoma Moro Magno Angliae Cancellario sanctitudinis palma decorandis.
…we ask whether the blessed martyrs John Cardinal Fisher Bishop of Rochester, and Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England may be endowed with the palm of sanctity.
Note that the surnames of both men are declined as second declension Latin nouns. There follows, on page 141, the minute of a public consistory held on April 4th. In the Latin explanatory note they are "Fisher" and "More" but in the text of the speech by Monsignor Bacci, Secretary of Briefs to Princes (one of the Pope's Latinists), they are "Fisherus" and "Morus".

The decretum de tuto on page 159 is the equivalent for a canonisation of the decree on beatification from 1886 quoted above. In the title and in the text they are "Fisher" and "More".

The semipublic consistory of 9th May 1935 is the actual canonisation. Again, in the explanatory note at the top, they are "Fisher" and "More" and, again, in the Pope's speech of introduction, they are "Fisherus" and "Morus" declined appropriately.

The pattern so far is clear. In the more bureaucratic texts the surnames are kept in their English forms but in the more solemn papal pronouncements (Bacci is said to be speaking in the name of the Pope) they are Latinised. However the formula of canonisation is as follows.
Ad honorem Sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, ad exaltationem fidei catholicae et christianae Religionis augmentum, auctoritate Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, Beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra; matura deliberatione praehabita et divina ope saepius implorata, ac de Venerabilium Fratrum Nostrorum S. R. E. Cardinalium, Patriarcharum, Archiepiscoporum et Episcoporum in Urbe existentium consilio, Beatum IOANNEM FISHER, S. R. Ecclesiae Cardinalem et Beatum THOMAM MORE, laicum, Sanctos esse decernimus et definimus, ac Sanctorum catalogo adscribimus; statuentes ab Ecclesia universali illorum memoriam quolibet anno, die eorum natali, nempe IOANNIS die vigesima secunda Iunii et THOMAE die sexta Iulii inter Sanctos Martyres pia devotione recoli debere. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
To the honour of the Holy and indivisible Trinity, for the exaltation of the catholic faith and the growth of the christian Religion, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of Ourselves; after mature deliberation and often imploring divine assistance, and by the advice of Our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops present in Rome, we determine and define that Blessed JOHN FISHER, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Blessed THOMAS MORE, layman, are Saints and we insert them in the catalogue of the Saints; decreeing that their feast on their day of death every year – namely for JOHN on June 22nd and for THOMAS on July 6th – is to be celebrated with loving devotion by the universal Church. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
So in the most solemn of the documents their surnames are not Latinised but in the homily immediately following they are. (N.B. "dies natalis" in the Latin literally means "birthday" but it refers to the day of a saint's death). In the gardens of Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea is a mulberry tree planted by a previous owner of the land. Thomas More did own the land on which the seminary now stands and the mulberry was supposedly planted by him because he was attracted by the Latin word for it, "morus". I guess Fisherus was used for consistency.

Makes Lord of the Rings look like Dora the Explorer

In 2010 I started reading George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire. It's a calque (as T. A. Shippey would say) on the Wars of the Roses, extremely complicated and highly addictive. I read the whole published series and then re-read them again last year in preparation for volume 5. Like many others, the only reason I haven't finished it is because the author hasn't either.

For some people this is a problem. Others write a song about it.

What a lovely man

Dinesh D'Souza writes:
He was a bit flustered, and soon informed me that his young son was sick with a chest condition.  He pleaded with me to send him $1,000 to cover the medical bills.  Since George was at the hospital I asked him to let me speak to a nurse, and she confirmed that George’s son was indeed ill.  So I agreed to send George the money through Western Union.  He was profusely grateful.  But before I hung up I asked George, “Why are you coming to me?”  He said, “I have no one else to ask.”  Then he said something that astounded me, “Dinesh, you are like a brother to me.”
George's surname is Obama. He has an actual brother, of whom you might have heard.

Lee Habeeb writes:
In his book no one has read, Homeland, George Obama has the temerity to suggest that if Barack Obama had been born and raised in Kenya rather than America, the life he has lived would be much different. Being born in the greatest, richest, freest country — one where free markets prevail — has allowed Barack to exercise his talents and achieve greatness.

Professor full stop

Professor J. Budziszewski   of the University of Texas at Austin writes an occasional column for the online Christian magazine (oh, all right, webzine) Boundless. He generally writes under the pseudonym Dr Theophilus. It was from his writings I learnt the definition "love is a commitment of the will to the true good of another". It might be from somebody else but I heard it first at the feet of Dr Theophilus.

The conceit of the Dr Theophilus' columns is that he is a professor pestered for advice – mostly moral – by his students. His writing is gentle but firm. No squishiness. His complete columns for Boundless appear to be all online (but there is no index, have to use the search vbar). They stretch back to 1998, including the one I nearly made the attention grabbing title of this post: I Got My Girlfriend Pregnant. What Now? Instead I made an undergraduate allusion to the general ignorance of Professor J. Budziszewski's Christian name. He became a Catholic in 2004.

"He used an adjective"

A profanity in Dickens.

Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1841), chapter 31. Joe Willetts has run away to join the army. As luck would have it he meets a recruiting serjeant at an inn.
"You're a gentleman, by G—!" was his first remark, as he slapped him on the back. "You're a gentleman in disguise. So am I. Let's swear a friendship."
Joe didn't exactly do that, but he shook hands with him, and thanked him for his good opinion.
"You want to serve," said his new friend. "You shall. You were made for it. You're one of us by nature. What'll you take to drink?"
"Nothing just now," replied Joe, smiling faintly. "I haven't quite made up my mind."
"A mettlesome fellow like you, and not made up his mind!" cried the serjeant. "Here—let me give the bell a pull, and you'll make up your mind in half a minute, I know."
"You're right so far"—answered Joe, "for if you pull the bell here, where I'm known, there'll be an end of my soldiering inclinations in no time. Look in my face. You see me, do you?"
"I do," replied the serjeant with an oath, "and a finer young fellow or one better qualified to serve his king and country, I never set my—" he used an adjective in this place—"eyes on."
"Thank you," said Joe, "I didn't ask you for want of a compliment, but thank you all the same. Do I look like a sneaking fellow or a liar?"
The serjeant rejoined with many choice asseverations that he didn't; and that if his (the serjeant's) own father were to say he did, he would run the old gentleman through the body cheerfully, and consider it a meritorious action.

Ronald Knox's Particular Dialogue

While he was teaching at Shrewsbury School, Ronald Knox made a number of contributions to its newspaper, The Salopian. One of them was 'A Particular Dialogue' – a conversation between different Greek particles, and combinations of Greek particles, designed to illustrate how they were used.

It is found in In Three Tongues (p. 133) but this version provided by Holt Parker of the University of Cincinatti, includes links to Smyth's Greek Grammar courtesy of the Perseus Project and references to J. D. Denniston's The Greek Particles.

'A Particular Dialogue' (The Salopian, July 1918) by Ronald Knox .

Dining etiquette in Space

Not a problem that had occurred to me:
Always have a loaner spoon available. In weightlessness, it is easy to lose things. It is not unusual in a group of six for someone’s spoon to have floated off. Having a clean loaner spoon allows for the evening to continue and the conversation to flow. It is rude to give your guest a loaner spoon caked in crud from the last time it was used. The lost spoon is usually found by morning, stuck to a ventilator inlet screen, and your guest will appreciate it being returned.
There's more
You can provide a special treat if you have access to one of the research refrigerators. In space, all your food is either hot or at room temperature. When you live in an isothermal environment, it can be a real treat to serve your guests a bag of cold water.
Don Pettit's Guide to Space Etiquette

I love Americans

(The pro-life ones certainly).

I can't quite see this initiative working. But God bless them for trying. How unlike our own "Captain Catholic" shufflers.

Note to Australian readers. Despite the mention of "senators" and "dollars" in this video, this applies to the United States only. Apparently they have dollars and senators too. Yes I know – it is really confusing.

Note to British readers. the Pro-life Alliance (note the hyphen) mentioned is not the organisation for which I used to work.

Tolkien Songs by Colin Rudd

So there's this bloke with a guitar and a webcam. He does straight versions – no parody, no funny effects – of songs from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In a few cases they are just sound playing against a black screen.

It's a shame about his politics, he has a song up in honour of Fidel Castro for crying out loud! The songs are reminiscent of the style of acoustic Led Zeppelin, or the Vagabond Crew song "I Was Only 19". Better than a ropy adaptation of a phrase from one of Tolkien's letters.

First up the one I found in a post on TheOneRing.Net which led me to the rest. The "Lament for Boromir" from The Two Towers book I, chapter 1 "The Departure of Boromir".

"The Walking Song" from Chapter 3 of Book I of The Fellowship of the Ring, "Three is Company". Lines from the last stanza found their way into Pippin's song for Denethor in the film of The Return of the King.

"The Tale of Tinúviel" from chapter 11 of Book I of The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Knife in the Dark". In the film, Peter Jackson had Aragorn sing a line or too in Elvish in a scene in the Midgewater Marshes rather than on Weathertop (funny that, in the book the song is complete and in English).

Gimli's "Song of Durin" from chapter 4 of Book II of The Fellowship of the Ring, "A Journey in the Dark".

Frodo's "Lament for Gandalf" from chapter 7 of Book II of The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Mirror of Galadriel". Only Sam's characteristic addition (not here) is found in the film. The last stanza (from 2:32) still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

"The Song of the Ent and the Entwives" from Chapter 5 of Book I of The Two Towers, "Treebeard". If you imagine Treebeard as like Prince Herbert in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, then this song fits perfectly.

Next some songs from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Number 4: "Princess Mee".

Number 9: "The Mewlips".

Number 14 "The Hoard".

Finally, he has set to music the early poem "The Little House of Lost Play" from the end of chapter 1 of The Book of Lost Tales Volume 1, "The Cottage of Lost Play". This is the beginning of the long series of books, edited by Tolkien's son, covering the history of the creation of Middle Earth. At this stage, the stories that would become The Silmarillion were told within a framing narrative as the first Englishman visits the Elves. The fey style of the guitar and strings suits Tolkien's writings from this period.

Fr Cassian Folsom OSB : From One Eucharistic Prayer to Many

A striking omission from Archbishop Annibale Bugnini's memoir The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 is any discussion of the reordering of churches. Striking because things like the demolition of the High Altar in St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, or the Rood Screen in St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham, are precisely the sort of things that most Catholics noticed as the reform was underway, whether it gave them joy or pain.

Archbishop Bugnini does use building (and, sotto voce, demolition) as a metaphor.
While the intense work [of the liturgy Consilium appointed to carry out the decrees of Vatican II] of liturgical reform went on, we looked down from above, between the presbytery of St Peter's, the Camposanto Teutonico, and the stern palace of the Holy Office, on the great scaffolding for the splendid audience hall. This was the period when the old irregular buildings around the Chapel of St. Peter were being razed; pneumatic drills were thrusting sixty to seventy metres down for the mighty pillars of reinforced concrete that would support the prodigious vault of architect Nervi. Day after day for five years we watched the steel, at once slender and strong, rise into the air for this gigantic building. Here were two work-yards in close proximity: both intended for the people of God, both of them eloquent symbols and consoling realities. (Chapter 5, p. 53)
And again, discussing the Missal, he writes:
But how difficult it is to take an ancient building in hand and make it functional and habitable without changing the structure! Peripheral alterations are not enough; there has to be a radical restoration. All this applied to the Ordinary. Just as the introduction of the vernacular into some parts of the Mass brought home the need of extending it to the entire rite, so the changes made in 1965 only showed up more clearly certain inconsistencies in rites, signs, and ceremonies that had become anachronistic. (Chapter 10, p.115)
Fr Cassian Folsom OSB of St Meinrad Archabbey, published 'From One Eucharistic Prayer to Many: How it Happened and Why' in a series of issues of The Adoremus Bulletin in 1996. The whole essay is worth reading, but the following paragraph serves as a reply to Archbishop Bugnini's tidy-mindedness.
Whether speaking of structure or of theology, the main argument seems to be that the Roman canon is untidy. In the course of its development it spread out from the original core text, the way an old country house develops from the original building: a wing is added on here, an extra story is built there, a door is cut in the wall where a window used to be, other windows are walled up and new stairwells are necessary because of certain additions, while others are rendered useless. Decorative trim is added “just because”. Fine woodwork and stonework appear in the most hidden and out-of-the-way places. Each part of an old building has its own history, and old rambling houses like this are truly wonderful: but they are not neat. Furthermore, they were not originally equipped with modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and electricity, and so we moderns sometimes find such houses inconvenient.

The unpatented tablet

Clearing out some old clippings at work I came across the following article from the Townsville Bulletin reprinted from (I guess) a Colorado newspaper. It turns out that Roger Fidler is a little bit famous on this point. In a nutshell he probably invented the iPad.

…Fidler had a chance to patent his tablet idea way back when, but took a pass. He believed it should be left unprotected so that the entire newspaper industry could benefit from it. Unfortunately, none of the high-powered brains running the newspaper business 20 years ago took him up on that offer…

Video here, for your convenience:

And now, thanks to the hi-tech method of typing the whole thing out, the article in the Townsville Bulletin.

Townsville Bulletin

31st October 1995

News tablet reads the reader as the reader reads the news

From Steffan Wagner, in Colorado

At first glance it looks like an unpretentious flat piece of grey plastic, but according to Roger Fidler, holding it up: "This is the newspaper of the future. The age of newsprint and paper is past".

The Tablet, as 52 year-old Mr Fidler calls his invention, weighs just under a kilogram and is 2cm thick. It is about as big as a foolscap page and looks just like a normal newspaper.

But touch the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen once and the "front page" comes to life. Subsequent touches produce video clips, graphic, analyses and the rest of the newspaper. The first prototypes of the interactive electronic newspaper are due on the US market in 1997 and, if everything runs to plan, more than 50 per cent of US households are targeted to be equipped with a Tablet within 15 years.

According to Mr Fidler, his invention sounds the death knell for conventional newspapers and also bodes ill for on-screen electronic newspapers designed for home computers. "Who wants to have to set up a personal computer, a monitor and a keyboard on the breakfast table if they want to know what's going on in the world?" asks Mr Fidler. On-line computer newspapers are not the ideal solution for other locations either: on the beach, in the subway or in the restaurant for example.

The Tablet is designed to be as idiot-proof as possible to use, "but it is the portability of the Tablet that is our greatest success", says Mr Fidler. "Using the Tablet, one can read an up-to-date paper anytime and anywhere".

Mr Fidler began his newspaper career aged 11 as a newspaper delivery boy in Eugene, Oregon. For the next 41 years he served the newspaper trade in such varied guises as reporter, author, designer, photographer, media adviser and art director.

For the past 2 1/2 years, Mr Fidler has been chief of the Informations Design Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, spear-heading research and development of the "portable, personal information apparatus". The lab is a think-tank run by media giant Knight Ridder which has a turnover of $US2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) and publishes, among other things, 29 daily newspapers in the united States.

Another feature of the Tablet is advertising, which in a normal newspaper in the US would make up around 80 per cent of the total revenue. One touch on the screen converts a static advertisement into a moving video picture, providing the reader with additional information about the product. Further touches allow the user to order goods or even reserve a table in his or her favourite restaurant. "The reader can then decide – just as with a normal shop window – whether to walk on by or to enter the establishment," explains Mr Fidler.

Readers' selection information, by touches on certain parts of the screen, provide a profile of that user and this allows editorial staff to tailor news supply to that individual. These profiles can also help advertising companies optimally serve target groups. Readers who regularly hog travel pages, for example, would find increasingly more ads for airlines in their Tablet.

There are still a few technical glitches to be ironed out, however. At present there is only enough storage capability for about six 30-second video clips. The battery is still far too heavy and Mr Fidler is still on the lookout for the ideal high resolution screen to provide a sharp image.

However, Mr Fidler is optimistic: "I think we've already solved the Tablet's main problems. Technical development is continuing and in the next few years we can expect storage capacity in the one gigabyte range (one gigabyte equals one billion bytes of information). For a single edition of the Tablet newspaper we need between 20 and 50 megabytes (one megabyte equals one million bytes)."

Paper, newsprint and distribution are all expensive and make up about 60 per cent of a conventional newspaper's production costs. Should the Tablet project be a success, then all these aspects would cease to exist. So, of course, would newspaper delivery people and waste-paper collections. Wet shoes stuffed with the sport section and glasses wrapped in the front page would become a thing of the past. However printed paper would not entirely disappear, in Mr Fidler's opinion: "We still found a use for horses, even after the automobile was invented."

DPA

Voyager 1 and 2 are Leaving

(This is not an update, I am just very late.)

Given how easily everyone zips around space in SciFi and how many planets they can visit which are 100%  like specific parts of Earth (but not Earth as a whole), it is surprising that no extra-solar planets had been certainly observed until 1992 (an early candidate found in 1988 was not confirmed until 2003) and so far nothing made by man has actually left the Solar System.

Voyager 1 at the Final Frontier
For nearly 35 years, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has been hurtling toward the edge of the solar system, flying through the dark void on a mission unlike anything attempted before. One day, mission controllers hope, Voyager 1 will leave the solar system behind and enter the realm of the stars—interstellar space.
Voyager – The Interstellar Mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech.
NASA – Voyager from the main NASA site.

Searching the Septuagint

To teach New Testament Greek, you need to have a handle on the Greek of the Septuagint.

Housman had some pungent things to say about the (editors of) the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, but he was not really attacking thesauruses per se. They are pretty useful. Faced with a bold assertion in a text book on the use of such and such a word, you can often check to see if it is true. Unfortunately the Perseus Project does not include the Septuagint and I have not yet worked out how to use the TLG.

Bible Researcher provides two pages of relevant information: one on the Septuagint and the other on Greek versions of scripture. (That looks like afterthoughts in site design rather than a really subtle distinction.)

Septuagint Online : Tools and Resources is a gateway to a mine of information on the Septuagint.

Septuagint.org is an ambitious attempt to have a fully parsed version of the Septuagint. I could do without the parsing and would prefer an index. It seems to have been forgotten and was supposed to have moved to its new home where none of the LXX has yet arrived.

The Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece presents itself as an official website of the Greek Orthodox Church. I have no idea if this is true. It claims that Ieronimos II Archbishop of Athens) is Chairman. The design, to my eyes, is reminiscent of a certain other *cough* Ecclesiastical website.

Whoever they are they at least have the complete Septuagint.

New Advent has the Septuagint with parallel English (Douay Rheims) and Latin translations.